Self-described "rural folk piano" player George Winston was among the earliest and most successful proponents of the genre of contemporary instrumental music later dubbed new age.
Signing to the Windham Hill label, between 1980 and 1982 he recorded a trilogy of albums - Autumn, December, and Winter Into Spring - of impressionistic, seasonally themed piano musings that laid much of the groundwork for the new age boom to follow.
In a sense, this second seasonal album follows an opposite direction from Autumn, its hard, isolated notes and stop-and-start style gradually giving way from the stasis of winter to the growth and movement of spring. It's a good album for beginning your day.

Amy Heckerling's film "Fast Times at Ridgemont High" had a couple of things in its favor–a funny script from a very young Cameron Crowe, great performances from Sean Penn and a bevy of previously undiscovered young stars some of whom went on to bigger and better things.
The film also had a terrific soundtrack. It's virtually half of an Eagles album even though they don't perform together. Don Henley contributes the terrific "Love Rules", melodic Tim Schmitt track "So Mich In Love", a Joe Walsh radio ready rocker and Don Felder's "Never Surrender" (that, of course, happened because the manager of the band Irving Azoff acted as a producer on the film). Poco turns in a fine track and Jackson Browne's superb "Somebody's Baby" which didn't show up on one of his albums (a best of) until 15 years later. Other popular performers including Donna Summer, Sammy Hagar, Stevie Nicks, Oingo Boingo and Graham Nash all contribute fine tracks as well filling out the album.

Disney's pioneering 1982 effort in computer animation has garnered a small but devoted cult audience, despite–or perhaps because of–its now-dated, rudimentary vid-game aesthetic. But while designers Jean Giraud and Syd Mead gave its visual design a certain streamline moderne panache, its musical score attempts a similar back-to-the-future fusion with somewhat more mixed results. Given the composer's often chilling, landmark synthesized score work a decade earlier on Kubrick's A Clockwork Orange, Wendy Carlos seemed like an apt choice for Tron. But without her previous collaborator's taste for Beethoven, Elgar, and Rossini, Carlos's instincts wend from atmospheric, 20th-century European modernism to cheesy '50s B-film melodramatics, with the sonic limitations of '80s synth technology sometimes a burden. Still, those fond of her solo work and collaboration with Kubrick on Orange (and The Shining) will find familiar charms in "Water, Music, and TRONaction," "TRONscherzo" and "Theme from TRON." But Journey's "Only Solutions" and now all-too-ironic "1990's Theme" further fix the score firmly in the '80s. This debut CD-release of the score also features three bonus tracks, the original "TRONaction" and two other unused cues, including a solo synth rendition of the film's anthem. –Jerry McCulley

"Spring Session M" is the debut studio album by American new wave band Missing Persons. It was released on October 8, 1982 by Capitol Records. The title of the album is an anagram of the band's name. Produced by Ken Scott with the songs written by Terry Bozzio, Dale Bozzio and Warren Cuccurullo, Spring Session M is a new wave rock album with elements of synthpop. Upon its release, the album received generally positive reviews from music critics and also noted commercial success, peaking at #17 on the Billboard 200. "Spring Session M" was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). Four singles were released from the album: "Words", "Windows", "Destination Unknown", and "Walking in L.A." All singles charted on the Billboard Hot 100 and the music videos received regular airplay on MTV.

An astonishing, peerless masterpiece, the soundtrack to David Lynch's debut labor of love creates a world of haunting mechanics and sexual distress in such a bizarre layer of sonic fog that any record collection is simply poorer without it. The enormity of the aural experimentation is extraordinary. With renowned sound designer Alan Splet, Lynch developed any technique he could conjure up - from recording with pieces of glass tubing, pneumatic engines, or water-based pieces of machinery - to produce sounds never heard before (or since) in any medium. Pieces of Fats Waller filter in through the unsettling haze. The sounds of the unimaginably horrific baby are nothing less than ghastly. Few directors could have realized such a potent vision only a first time out. Disturbing, haunting, and - decades later - still one of the most compelling sonic creations in the history of film.

The Distance was hailed as a return to form upon the time of its release and, in many ways, might be a little stronger, a little more consistent than its predecessor, Against the Wind. Still, this album has the slickest production Bob Seger had yet granted, and the biggest hit single on The Distance wasn't written by him, it was a cover of Rodney Crowell's "Shame on the Moon." Now, this wasn't entirely unusual, since Seger had been an excellent interpreter of songs for years, but this, combined with the glossy sound, signaled that Seger may have been more concerned with his status as a popular, blue-collar rocker than his music…

The Rolling Stones' record-breaking 1981 arena tour documented by director Hal Ashby. Featuring the biggest Rolling Stones songs from the first 20 years - in the words of Mick Jagger, "a feel of what it's like to be there", as 20 cameras take you onstage with the band in this groundbreaking, dynamic tour.

The Rolling Stones' record-breaking 1981 arena tour documented by director Hal Ashby. Featuring the biggest Rolling Stones songs from the first 20 years - in the words of Mick Jagger, "a feel of what it's like to be there", as 20 cameras take you onstage with the band in this groundbreaking, dynamic tour.

Scorpions - Virgin Killer (1976). Virgin Killer is the first of four studio releases that really defined the Scorpions and their highly influential urgent metallic sound. It was released in 1976 and was the first album of the band to attract attention outside Europe. The album was a step in the band's shift from psychedelic music to hard rock. For the first time in the band's career the line-up stayed the same with Klaus Meine on vocals, Uli Jon Roth on lead guitar, Rudolf Schenker on rhythm guitar, Francis Buchholz on bass, and Rudy Lenners on drums. The nine tracks were laid down with Dieter Dierks producing. The band is in top form and churns out some melodic yet blistering heavy rock. Virgin Killer is full of heavy songs and exceptionally, fast, innovative guitar leads by Uli Jon Roth…

Taking the musical reins from the legendary Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner boarded the Starship Enterprise to deliver what would prove to be his breakthrough score. A surprisingly dark, emotional effort some distance removed from Goldsmith's utopian fanfare, Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was instrumental in steering the franchise into more complex territory. Horner's lucid melodies and sweeping orchestral arrangements possess a sense of genuine danger and malice long absent from Star Trek's musical backdrop, climaxing in the profoundly emotional catharsis of "Spock." His efforts lend Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's vision a newfound gravitas.

The Getaway gave Chris de Burgh his first charted single with "Don't Pay the Ferryman," which peaked at number 34 in 1983. A feverishly fast-paced tune, it contained vibrant keyboards and had de Burgh powerfully barking out the chorus in one of his most intense offerings…

Hot And Wild is a 1982 vinyl bootleg by The Rolling Stones. The recordings, a mixture of outtakes and live material, is a bit on the raw side but is listenable and enjoyable. Tap Productions made this.

Somebody Somewhere is the 1982 album by Steve Marrs. This was remastered in 2013 by Sony Records Int'l in Japan.

Inexplicably, Ernie Watts thought it a good idea to record an album dedicated to the movie Chariots of Fire, while having very little to do with the overall plot of the film. The opening number is indeed the theme to Chariots of Fire, but sped up to be danceable. The result is what disco connoisseur Morgan Geist might deem to be an "unclassic" - really bad but in a very laughable way (it also could double as the fine theme to an afternoon syndicated talk show). James Ingram also makes an appearance on the smooth rocker "Hold On," and there's a ridiculous cover of the Lionel Richie/Kenny Rogers hit "Lady" and one of Donny Hathaway's "Valdez in the Country," which would be appropriate music bedding for your local cable weather forecast. The album is finally put out of its misery with a "slower" and more reggae-based interpretation of "Chariots of Fire" that is just as amusing as the album's opener, if not more so…

Changin' Times is the 1982 album by soul group Positive Express. This is the 2004 remaster reissued by Victory.